*< OF THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY- 



ever reading is preferred, the fenfe will be near* 

 ly the fame, as it grants that natural philofophy 

 was written in thcfc hieroglyphics *. 



In the following pages, the tefiimonies of ma-, 

 jiy will be found to corroborate the received o- 

 pinion, that their phyilcal tenets were expref- 

 fed in fuch fymbo!$. But, as no ftranger was 

 capable of reading and explaining them, there 

 can be no authority for further conjectures. 

 Following the fentiments of Julius Finnicus 

 Maternusf, a writer of the 4th century, many 

 as yet contend that the faccrdotal art, orfucrcd 

 and divine icienee, as it is called, conliiled chief- 

 ly of magic and alchemiilry J. By magic, how- 

 ever, they do iiot here underllund tliofc diaboli- 

 cal and forbidden pracliccs, which obtained even 

 in the time of Moles Jj, but merely an attention 

 to the works of nature, and the particular qua- 

 lities of bodies, whofe fecret modes of operation, 

 diflingutrticd commonly by the epithets fympatfiy 

 aud antipathy, enabled them to difplay all their 

 miracles. Hence the difference between magical 

 medicine, hermetic or pbilofonhic, and empiric ; 

 for the former, reiling folely upon oblervation, 

 confiders thecaufes of difeafe, the figns of bodies, 

 and virtues of remedies.und which Ifocrates think* 

 fo defen r ing of praile, as to give to the Egyptian^ 



the 



* L. xxxvi. 9. 



f Matth. L. Hi. c. 15. conf. Pi-xf. 1. ii. iii. iv. v. 



^ Schri dcr, 1. c. 



. vii. and viii. 



